Kalamazoo Gazette education reporter Julie Mack was reading an article on Michigan teacher pay and benefits that was based on a report from the Mackinac Center.

The report relied on numbers from the American Legislative Exchange Council, which, in turn, cited salary figures from the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Something about the numbers struck her as inaccurate, so Julie did some fact-checking. She found that the figures from the underlying source didn’t add up.

Page 27 of the Legislative Exchange Council report lists Michigan’s average 2006-07 teacher salary as $58,482 compared to a national average of $46,593, a difference of $11,889. But the table she found on nces.ed.gov had different numbers: It listed Michigan’s average 2006-07 teacher salary as $54,895, compared to a national average of $50,819, a difference of $4,876.

That was in the range reported by two other sources:

An April 2009 report from the U.S. Census says that Michigan teachers are the seventh-highest paid teachers in the nation, with an average salary of $54,739 compared to a national average of $49,026 — a difference of $5,713, based on 2006 numbers.

The National Education Association’s list for the 2007-08 school year ranks Michigan as 11th, with an average salary of $56,096, compared to a national average of $52,308 — a difference of $3,788.

She noted, too, that while Michigan teachers continue to be paid more than the national average, that ranking is definitely slipping. That should come as no surprise to anyone.

According to the NCES chart, teachers’ pay nationally increased 0.8 percent beyond the inflation rate between fall 1999-2000 and 2006-07, while Michigan teachers’ pay dropped 7.2 percent, when taking inflation into account. (To be clear: That doesn’t mean that Michigan teachers actually earned less in 2006, but their pay lagged behind inflation by 7.2 percent.)

That was the biggest drop nationally, according to the NCES chart.

So Julie contacted the Mackinac Center and questioned the numbers in their report on teacher salaries.

To his credit, Kenneth M. Braun posted an answer to Julie’s query on the Mackinac Center Web site.

“I do sincerely appreciate the look behind the numbers — and the digging for more numbers,” he wrote to Julie in his e-mail. “It’s a terrific — and unfortunately rare — thing to see any reporter do. And I’m delighted to see it happen, even if I’m the one left scrambling for an answer to numbers that were not mine to begin with.”

We all should be thankful for reporters like this and all the critical thinkers who don’t just accept information. They question everything.